If customer service gets great lip service at your bank, but short shrift from IT, there might be a good reason: lack of solid and usable metrics behind the business case.
This article was originally published in BAI Banking Strategies on April 22, 2013
Providing superior customer service has been a key differentiating strategy for many financial institutions. After all, we are in a service business and service quality matters. But measuring the payoff has been elusive. We know it’s the right thing to do but can we measure how our investments in customer service really translate into bottom line impact with the same discipline that we apply to other aspects of our business?
One problem is the way we describe service quality. “Wow,” “delight” and “Disney-style” are usefully descriptive adjectives but what do they really mean in a service context and how do they impact the bottom line? An even bigger issue, in our experience, is the lack of disciplined metrics and financial models that link these investments to financial return. How can management measure the return on investment (ROI) from the human, Information Technology (IT) and capital resources required to attain higher levels of service?
As with any other investment, management needs tools to quantify impact and prioritize investments in a disciplined way. Without them, we are forced to navigate by touch and feel, responding by instinct and emotion to determine what customers want and value, rather than managing with facts and metrics.
Ned Miller and his team at MZ Bierly Consulting have worked with several of our clients and we are always impressed by their business banking acumen.
Guest post by Ned Miller, MZ Bierly Consulting
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They don’t spend enough time with average performers. Sales Managers like to hang around with their best people; high performers remind them of themselves! (They also have massive recognition needs—”Hey, boss, let me tell you what I just did…”) Chronic low performers also command attention—often an exercise in futility. Who gets left out? The 70% of the sales team whose performance could probably benefit most from coaching.
I am very pleased that two well-known bankers/strategists: Ric Carey, formerly with Umpqua Bank, and Tom Zayko, formerly with Citigroup, have joined Peak Performance Consulting Group as Directors.
As EVP and Head of Retail Banking for Umpqua Bank, Ric managed Umpqua’s internationally acknowledged best-in-class community banking program. Additionally, he has particular expertise in Small Business Banking.
Tom is an expert at identifying growth opportunities and creating high performing marketing and sales strategies. His work includes developing specific competitive and growth strategies based on individual market potential. In addition, he was responsible for creating a unique survey program that gathers customer feedback in real-time.
Ric and Tom bring tremendous expertise to our clients, having led their banks in strategies that achieved revenue growth with superior profitability and improved distribution effectiveness. With long careers in banking, they understand the challenges the industry faces today, and they know how to deliver bottom-line results. In addition, they expand our geographic coverage: with Ric on the West Coast and Tom focused on the Mid-Atlantic and New England area, we are better able to serve our growing client base.
But, as they say on TV, “wait, there’s more!” Go here for the full release from BusinessWire.
This article was originally published in BAI Banking Strategies on Nov. 21, 2012
Effective bank-at-work programs require a target market strategy, relationship sales process, segmented offers and deep penetration of the employee base.
“Bank at Work,” or workplace banking, is not a new concept but it’s one that may deserve a second look from growth-starved bankers since best-in-practice banks have embraced this strategy to drive as much as between 40% and 60% of all new consumer accounts. And the time is definitely right for this renewed attention. Fewer customers are coming into bank branches as preferences shift to alternative channels. At the same time, traditional media and direct response is becoming less efficient as a means of acquiring and converting prospects. In this environment, bank-at-work can be a highly effective and efficient acquisition channel by reaching prospective customers at their workplace.
Our analysis of over 20 workplace banking programs suggests a clear roadmap for building successful programs. We surveyed a broad spectrum of financial institutions, from Top 10 to super-community banks. Some had developed highly innovative solutions that enhanced their ability to penetrate the bank-at-work channel. Others, who were equally effective, simply maintained a clear eyed focus on basic executional excellence.
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This article was originally published in BAI Banking Strategies on Oct. 19, 2012
Whether they want to stay in business for the long term or sell at an attractive valuation, community bankers need strategies to generate revenue growth.
“Without a growth strategy, you are dead in the water,” said Chuck Sulerzyski, CEO of Marietta, Ohio-based Peoples Bank. And that pretty well sums up the mood at a panel discussion I moderated at the recent BAI Retail Delivery 2012 entitled “Winning Strategies for Community Banks.”
While each of the three bank CEOs participating in the discussion serves different markets with different challenges, they all agreed on growth as the key imperative. If you want to stay in business for the long term, you’ve got to be able to grow revenue. Likewise, if you want to sell your bank, you need a growth story to warrant an attractive multiple. In the face of broad industry challenges – sluggish economic growth, limited capital, higher regulatory burden, shallow yield curve – what are these banks doing to generate that revenue growth?
Missed the BAI Retail Delivery Conference & Expo, or attended and trying to make sense of the over 200 vendors? Here’s my personal “Top 5″ do-not-miss list
Panoramic view of exhibit hall – use mouse to move left or right.
Walking through the exhibit hall at BAI Retail Delivery you’d never know it had its origins as an ATM conference. This year only 11 of the roughly 210 exhibitors were in the ATM space while over 60 were promoting mobile payments. How times have changed!
What else were the vendors promoting? “Customer experience” was the hot buzzword this year, closely followed by “gamification” (I’m still trying to figure out what that means).
So how do you boil this all down? Here’s my personal Top 5 “must see” list.
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